Wednesday, August 8, 2012

My now fiancé, Mike
and I met at Evergreen Baptist Church of LA in 2001, but it wasn't
until 9 years later when I moved to the Bay Area and he moved to Carlsbad that our story together began. It started with this facebook post:

I quickly responded to his post via chat. Little did we know that this post would lead to hours of online conversations, phone calls and
video chats. After a ski trip in December in which Mike revealed his feelings for me, we finally started dating in the beginning of 2011. It was a treasure to see how our personalities matched so well, and how our vision for life and our hearts were so aligned. It was a mystery as to why we didn't date earlier, but it was all part of God's perfect
plan and timing. As we traveled and adventured up and down the coast, the mountains and deserts of California, through Texas and Seattle we discussed marriage and prayed about possible
locations to live in the future. God answered our prayers and Mike's
company was awarded a contract in Petaluma. This set the ball in motion
for Mike to propose.

Initially he had the idea of proposing later in the
year, but our mutual friend Alex was going to be in California, and
offered his piloting services to make the engagement day extra special.
While I was away on business trips - Michael did his ring shopping and
asked my dad for his blessing over
his decision to ask for my hand in marriage. My dad gave a handshake of approval, and answered "of course." So, on a cloudy July 29th, after I completed a half marathon in San Francisco, Mike took me to a cliff overlooking Poplar Beach in Half Moon Bay (HMB) and proposed to me. Although he showed me a print out of the original facebook post (above) - and started reminiscing about the journey of our relationship, I really wasn't sure he was proposing. He had just taken me ring shopping the weekend before! I didn't think he could possibly have a ring by then. I even chimed in on some of the memories. I started to get more of clue when I felt how fast his heart was beating, and when he said, "how would you like this to be your last DTR" and got on one knee - I finally shut up. After I said yes, our friend Liz, popped from out of the bushes - she had been taking photos the entire time! Mike understood how important good photography and documenting
memories was to me, so he appropriately asked Liz to capture the day. She had met up with Mike prior to the engagement day to scope out the
proposal site, and even flew in from San Diego that morning from a
family gathering. Next, Mike took us to HMB airport where he surprised me with Alex who took us on a flight over the Bay Area. It was magical. The adventure continued when we couldn't land back in HMB because of the cloud cover and Samuel had to rescue us from San Carlos Airport and take us back to HMB. Thanks, Samuel! The last surprise was that Mike coordinated both of our families to be at Mezza Luna for dinner...including his sister that lives in Texas! It was the perfect finale to an already blessed afternoon. Here are Liz's amazing photos that illustrate the day.

With the two rock stars of the day, Liz & Samuel

Higaki Family

Ng Family

Thank you for an unforgettable day, Michael! God has blessed me so richly by giving you to me. May we continue to seek God as we start our life together!

11 comments:

Absolutely agree with your comment, "It was a mystery as to why we didn't date earlier"!!!!! The minute I heard you two were going out, it all made perfect sense. Mike, you did an amazing job... last time I heard a proposal story like that, Alex was involved, so its obvious he was involved this time too. We're happy for you, feel free to ask me or Nicole if you need any help!